This is my first time being on tour and I mean really on tour, out of town for a week at a time on tour.  I wasn’t sure I knew how to be on tour.  After spending some time with many different Kindergarten classes before the performances I began to realize that all I needed to know about being on tour I had learned in Kindergarten.

Rule number one, share everything.  This rule was easy!  After week one we had all passed around a cold of some form.  Once we hit the road Sarah and Wendy learned how to share their costumes.  I shared all my tissue, gum, tic-tacs, and ibuprophen. Oh, and we all had to share hotel rooms.

#2 Don’t hit people.  I must have missed this day in Kindergarten.  During the fight over the hat I almost hit Wendy in the eye.  I scratched Wendy’s arm during one show.  Sarah hit me in the face once when I was trying to get past her to the prince.  Stacey loves to hit whoever is playing Tisbe with a pillow.  Maybe we all missed this lesson.

#3 Clean up your own mess.  I use to try to pick up all the feathers my boa would leave on gym floors, but after a while I just gave up and picked up everyone’s empty water bottles.

#4 Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.  I can’t count the number of times “I’m sorry” gets whispered back stage during the show because someone has ignored the “don’t hit people” rule.

#5 Wash your hands before you eat.  We have all learned to wash our hands or use hand sanitizer after giving high fives and shaking kids’ hands.  I think we have finally gotten rid of the sickness that we have been sharing!

#6 Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.  We never turn down baked goods.  We had a teacher in Grass Valley make us yummy banana bread.  Sarah is always making or buying us cookies.  For the triple birthday celebration I made everyone carrot cake cupcakes.  When you are on the road sweets seem to make it all better.

#7 Take a nap every afternoon.  The guys have this one covered; one of them is always taking a nap on the set bed before the show or in between shows.

#8 When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.  Travelling in a group of nine we have learned this lesson well.  We tend to stick together for meals and never seem too sick of one another that we wouldn’t be up for a game of Apples to Apples once the work day is over.

Goes to show everything you DO need to know you learned in Kindergarten!

By Jessica Vit Anderson

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009    

Part 1
We started the day dark and early in Baker City.  Most of us woke up somewhere around 5:30am or so in order to meet at 6:15 to depart for Pine Eagle Elementary/Junior High/High School in Halfway, Oregon.  The hills and mountains were covered in snow, but the roads were clear.  Opera singers really don't like getting up anywhere near this early, and I would say most of us weren't exactly bright-eyed or bushy-tailed as the saying goes.  But we were treated to a spectacular sunrise in the mountains as we drove along the Hell's Canyon Scenic By-way. The sun cast a reddish orange glow over the peaks while the mountains and valleys were a colored in the deep purple filter of early dawn's shadow.

We couldn't afford to spend too much time admiring the view though as most of us were putting the finishing touches on learning some new music for 3 upcoming concert performances or catching a few more moments of sleep or making sure that the van didn't drive over the edge of the twisting roads.

We arrived at the school without incident and were met with enthusiasm, if not necessarily the most sure directions on where to unload the set from the truck.  Having been told that it would work best for us if we drove the Penske truck around the building, our fearless and intrepid tour manager proceeded to drive around the back of the building. 

However, we were then told that we would be better off if we had stayed in the front of the building.  In the course of moving the truck back to the front of the building, the moving truck got stuck in the snowy "trail" that was behind the school.  At this point we were getting closer and closer to show time, and we hadn't unloaded one piece of the set. 

“You look like my 19 year old brother.”
“Can you tell me what a moaning moose sounds like?”
“My favorite was the pink and the green princesses.”

We are heading out on our first road trip from Boring, OR to Seaside on the Cinderella tour and the group is already jiving really well. The set is pretty easy to assemble especially with 9 sets of hands to move things in and out of schools. The costumes are gorgeous and the kids love that they are color specific to each character. Cinderella and Ramiro are blue, Tisbe and the Father are Green and Clorinda is Pink. I am amazed at how quickly the kids recognize the different colors and identify them with the individual characters.
 
I have discovered an interesting phenomenon while on tour so far. I like to call it- “the princess factor.” I can see it in the little girls’ eyes as soon as Cinderella asks them a question or when Cinderella comes out on stage in her blue dress or after the show when the kids just want to touch “the princess.” It is amazing to think that they actually believe you are a princess and live at Disneyland. Princesses truly have become heroines for little girls.
 
I am excited to arrive in Seaside and have the evening to spend with my new colleagues getting to know each other. We have people from as far as Kentucky and New York and as close as Multnomah Village. But we all share a common love for this art form and feel so blessed to have this opportunity to bring opera to schools throughout the state.
 
Written by Sarah Norton

As an actor, it is rare to make the audience "feel" enough to cry.  I forget that occasionally the audience can get so wrapped up in the moment that they believe in the reality of the world onstage. As a young actor it is also rare to get so caught up in the moment that you find yourself weeping onstage for the girl who has just expired because her lungs have filled with a combination of blood and mucus causing pleural failure. In the event of these few and far between occurrences, the more sentimental members of the mature audience may be seen wiping their eyes, sniffing the moisture back into their noses that is the involuntary result of catharsis.
 
However, our four-year old was not watching La Boheme. The young lady was viewing an Opera Improv show on Wednesday evening. The story was our Fracture Fairy Tale option, where the Big Bad Wolf is placed at the bar for attempted murder and general disquiet in the realm of make-believe. The action began during the overture (Liszt's Totentanz), with the reveal of the Little Pig #3 being pursued by the Big Bad Wolf (yours truly). The porcine would-be victim escapes however (only to return later as the bailiff, "Officer Porker"), leaving the B.B.W. to begin the opera with a bit of improvised recitative.
 
It went somewhat thus:

"I'm the Big Bad Wolf! Though I've already had two little piggies for breakfast today, that third one will fit nicely in the fridge for a snack later. Too bad he got away! Oh well, that's okay, I like eating little children just as well!"
 
At this point, I licked my chops, hunkered down, and gazed with gastronomic yearning at the four-year old in question. She quivered, with fear, screamed, and had to be rescued by a young lady I assume to be her mother. The consolation proved effective, as her sobbing subsided, and eventually she returned to her place in the front row.
 
The remainder of the show went without issue, and our morbid audience voted for a tragic ending, where the B.B.W. is cleared of his charges due to a mistrial (Red Riding Hood was the judge in disguise, seeking revenge for her grandmothers demise).

I made an attempt at reconciliation with my four-year old after the show, but I think she had her doubts about my intent... after all, the villain won, and if a child can believe that a charming young singer could really be a wolf in human clothing, how is it any less satisfying than leaving an audience with damp cheeks for a dead Mimi?

--Sammuel "Wolfman" Hawkins

The truly gratifying part of the tour is when we perform for an engaged and receptive school audience, and they pay attention to specific details. This is true especially after we've had a long run with silent and "zombie-like" audiences who have no response whatsoever. Then when we suddenly hear the laughter and applause where we're normally not used to it, it makes it worthwhile. That signifies their sign of appreciation and that applause also counts for the time it took for us to set and strike the set (especially those 8am mornings). I'd also have to say it is rewarding when we perform for an older audience and you see and hear them tearing up. It makes the 50th performance that much more organic and engaging, and it allows us to forget how sleep-deprived we all really are.

The most amusing part of the tour has been: signing autographs for kids, getting hugs from them, and having the kids tell me their honest observations. They seem to like letting me know that I look like someone they know or they can get very personal. Here are a few examples:
 
"You're pretty. You look like Mulan."

"You look like and act like London from Disney's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."

"How old are you? You look like you're 18."

"My mom's as old as you."

"Are you married?"

"We know someone who'd be good for you. Our teacher."

"Do you really like Marcello? Are you guys going to stay together?"

(Ha...Ha...Ha...Hilarious!)
 
Written by Sarah Kim

10 Greatest Things About the Portland Opera To Go Tour

Best Clam Chowder
Ship Inn Restaurant & Family Pub – Astoria, OR

Best Hotel
La Quinta - Ashland, OR

Best Destructive Moment
TIE:  Backing the Opera van into a parked car & knocking over a flat screen computer monitor during a scene change.  We won’t mention the locations.  (Both courtesy of Sarah Kim)

Best Audience
Canyonville Christian Academy - Canyonville, OR

Best Beach
Newport Beach, OR

Best Question from a 4th grader
“Can I have your number?”  (to Sarah Kim)

Best Free Gift
T-Shirts from Riley Creek Elementary School – Gold Beach, OR

Best Marionberry Scone
Gold Beach Books – Gold Beach, OR
www.oregoncoastbooks.com

Best Opera Improv Story
“Fractured Fairy Tale”  
The Big Bad Wolf is captured and put on trial by one of the three little pigs, cross-examined by prosecuting attorney Cinderella, and discovers the judge is none other than Little Red Riding Hood in disguise.

Best Coffee Shop
Great Pacific, Pendleton, OR
www.greatpacific.biz

During our travels we get to sample some of the local restaurants and coffee shops and what have you. This last Friday I think we found the best smoothie and Java shake cafe in the state. It's called Oregon Sunshine Espresso and they specialize in blended drinks using Umpqua Valley milk products. They also have a nice selection of wines and very helpful staff.

So, if you're ever in Canyonville, Oregon, maybe visiting 7 Feathers casino or just driving through to Grants Pass and need to make a stop, Oregon Sunshine is located on Main Street, North of downtown and South of the casino. The address is 340 N Main street. Check it out!

Cafe review by Sara Busch

 Life on the road is exciting, rewarding, and challenging!
We though we would share some of those moments with you in photos.  Enjoy!

We Sing Seattle-ese

Kids say the darndest things. Ya gotta love 'em. The cutest and most humorous answer to any of our questions this season:

Question: Does anyone know the language we just sang?

Answer: Seattle?

Yes, Seattle has it's own opera dialect. I'll need a refresher course for that diction. We also get great answers for other questions. During our Opera Improv intro we will sing a snippit of an aria and ask our audience, usually K-5th graders, "what type of character or mood did I just sing?"

Answers fly at us such as,

"You look like you're a king punishing a peasant"

"You're a princess who just kissed the prince"

"There's a spider in front of you and you're scared"

"You're lost and you can't find your mommy"

Smart kids. Clever kids. Never do they cease to entertain us.

Written by: Bobby Jackson

At the end of our Opera Improvs, sometimes we have the time for a Q and A session. This is always fun, because we get some really fun questions. My favorite though, is when we get a student who wants to sing for everyone like an opera singer. We've had several throughout the tour, girls singing as high as they possibly can and guys typically singing with the baritone claw (hand outstretched), but today at a performance for homeschoolers in Beaverton we heard my favorite. I believe we met a diva in the making! One of the girls that we performed for asked if she could sing for us like an opera singer and preceded to stand up, face the audience and say "Wolf Man, get the piano ready!" She wanted "happy music", so Eric, our pianist, preceded to play some happy music on the piano and away she went. What confidence! I wish I had that when I was her age.

We've been on the road for many weeks now and have been all over Oregon. Many times when we travel out of town for the day or week, we'll load up in the van, sleep and just wake up when we get there, unload and perform the show. Consequently, we don't always know where we are, except the name of the school. I felt so silly when after being interviewed after a show for a newspaper, I asked the girl that was interviewing me, "So, is this for a local paper or the school paper?" I soon found out it was the capital's paper, the Statesman! We were in Salem and I didn't even know it.

Written by Alexis Lundy